Jim James - Here In Spirit

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"Here In Spirit" by Jim James

Curated by: Mike Floeck

Genre: #rock

Ever the agile thinker and all too often the desolate wanderer, Jim James conjures an inner activist and scolds those to his left and right about the dangers of silence. “Here In Spirit” is a call to arms from James’ second solo record apart from fronting My Morning Jacket. In absolute truth to form, a man who performs in caftans and waterbug sunglasses on stage is concealing the truest nature of his message with lyrics that paint a broader picture. Look to the tracklist to catch his drift, though: the first song on the album is titled “Hide In Plain Sight”.

Now we have a political call to arms, sung by a leftist from a centrist point of view, who fronts a band known for psychedelic mayhem and madness? It’s like asking Tame Impala to provide backing track to a PSA on PBS, right? No - not in the slightest. “Here In Spirit” swells to a beaming sing-a-long that lifts hearts and souls to the high heavens. It’s a message we can all get behind: “If you don’t speak out, we can’t hear it.” James wrote the song as a response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting and after taking part in a gathering the following day. Given the context, the message becomes a little clearer.

James uses his wide range and unique register (and a beautifully distorted piano) to control this anthem and project it as a hopeful beacon - even though it warns of danger, even as it acts as a call to arms, it assuages the listener and coddles us in the warmth of its hazy production and the subtle layering that renders background vocal calls and responses nearly inaudible. He gets lost on the guitar guiding the song to an exalted ending: “call on me,” he offers, but is he talking to us or to himself?